September 5, 2012

An international flavour :-)

Nine o clock already and I’ve just sat down, luckily I’ve already had dinner on the ferry or I’d still be making that. It’s pretty dark outside and even just less than an hour ago when I arrived home most of the hens were roosting. Around fifteen came charging out to join the five ‘dirty stop outs’ but that still left about ten resolutely refusing to budge of their perches as I collected the eggs and cleaned around them. Not so many today, only two dozen and that was including two already laid and damaged at 6:00am. One of the girls is just dropping them straight from the perch so they more often than not break, or at least crack, get covered in hen pooh or both, funny thing is they’re nearly always in exactly the same place as if each hen has its own favourite spot. Extra sawdust on the floor seems to help a little but has only saved a couple of eggs

Nine thirty now and I’ve hardly got into my stride, got distracted by the phone for a wee while there, normally I hate using it but not on this occasion

Anyway today was the first full day of my shift, with me up at 5:30 then out at 6:00 to let out the chooks, a quick plonk on here, several cups of coffee then out to greet the pigs.

The ruins of one and four South Arnish being the venue for breakfast, number four being the nearest one with the large stone lintel over the fire place and number one being to the left.

With all of the herd and flock sorted I managed a quick trip up to the new house site to see how Hooky the ‘GDD’ was getting on with his rock breaking

very well it would seem

Rock on the left, soil on the right

Leaving the sight of our new dream home site behind I continued on down ‘Calum’s road’ to work

finding two 14ton diggers already having made a big impression on the Raasay water treatment plant improvements and discovering the rest of the team,

‘hard at it’

The good ship Loch Striven already having had a good wash before I arrived

The first full day on board flew by with a good deal of traffic, both ‘touristy’ and commercial,

RJ Macleod’s Scania bringing in a shipping container for the new ‘waterworks’.

Scallops galore

I can’t say that I was pleased to see the ‘clam dredger’ Our Catherine working in the Raasay narrows as it’s a type of fishing that I don’t approve of. Twenty odd years of diving in their wake has led me to that conclusion

However it didn’t stop me accepting the huge bag of scallops that the hard working crew gave to us.

I know, I know, I’m a hypocrite with no scruples, after all the ranting I’ve done in the past I should have thrown them back.

The IVS are in town

Lunchtime saw the wee dug and I wandering up to the Raasay village hall where a group from the IVS http://ivsgb.org/info/ were just finishing off their lunch.

This bunch of cheery souls from Japan, Bosnia, the Czech Republic and England had been helping out at our village hall, painting and tidying up around the grounds.

Of course it would not have been possible without the rest of the community housing and feeding them,

but they’re doing a fine job and it’s well appreciated

I’m also thinking that scallops may be on the menu shortly thanks to the ‘dreaded clam dredger’

You can also see their handiwork, meet the team and listen to some music in the newly decorated hall on Friday night at 7:30 where there will be a bit of a ceilidh

I know, it’s pretty lame but I’m tired and need my bed

so I’ll just leave you with ‘Grumpy Digger Driver’ making a fine job of landscaping in front of Raasay House

It’s a little softer here than the rock of Arnish

Here’s RJ Macleod’s 14 ton diggers, ‘RJ’s’ arjays as they’re known by all, levelling the new treatment plant site at 7:00am

This is it thirteen hours later with the inevitable security fence around it, hope they leave some of that for our hens

Paul,
I hope you had the scallops with some black pudding , they look a good size. Still getting through the Stornoway black pudding & the Macleod & Macleod fruit pudding that we brought back down south…………………part of my five a day.
Can you get the IVS up back to make you a handsome dry stone wall with some of that rock the GDD is breaking up?

How does Hooky manage to cover two jobs at once :-)? Raasay is going to have the worlds biggest water treatment plant if it keeps growing every six years.You may need a de-salination plant aswell if droughts continue.

Paul,
I think all the excitement with the diggers has made you for get the chilli recipes. I like my chilli and this is the first I have heard of cocoa. Looking forward to it.
Had a bash with a variation on your potato & tomato bake………………………handsome.

Hi Paul,
Do you know if the water-works workers are staying in the YH – when I was there a guy came along and asked me if the hostel was open all year, and explained that they were going to be doing work at the water treatment plant and needed somewhere to stay – I told him to get in touch with the YH at Broadford, don’t know what the outcome was. I also saw quite a few toads at the YH – shame I couldn’t bring some home with me for our garden pond.